BEAUTIFUL BROKEN MESS (Broken, Series #2)(43)

I freeze, knowing Jace must be close, but I can’t open my eyes to look. A warm hand touches my hip and his tantalizing voice says, “You found my girl.” I hear the smile in his tone and I tense at his words. “Look at me, gorgeous,” he whispers, too close to my lips.

Because I can’t seem to convince my traitorous body to defy him, my eyes snap open. Just as I imagined, he’s bending down and looking directly at me. If I wanted to, I could move a fraction of an inch and have my mouth on his.

“Did you enjoy teasing me?” he inquires softly so Mason can’t overhear. I’m thankful, because it was rude of me to get lost in Jace while dancing with someone else. I don’t want Mason to know about that.

And because I’m generally honest to a fault, I respond with a simple and breathless, “Yes.” His eyes flare with excitement and his grip on my waist intensifies. He enjoys when I obey him, but he also likes to be teased. Huh… good to know. Not that this will ever happen again.

“Seriously?” Mason groans, interrupting our stare-down. “What’s with you and Jaxon taking the good ones?” he asks Jace. Then he looks at me, saying, “Thanks for the dance, Audrey,” and turns to walk away.

“Thanks, Mason, anytime you want to dance again, let me know. Jace and I aren’t together,” I hurriedly say before he can get out of earshot.

Mason abruptly halts his movement, but Jace quickly stops whatever he might be thinking. “Move it along,” he growls and pulls my hips to his.

With a scowl, I turn and say, “It’s time for me to go home. Walk me to my car?” I wish I didn’t even have to ask him, but I promised Lane.

He takes my hand as we leave the bar, and I decide that pulling it away is not a battle I feel like having with him at the moment. He’s gripping me tightly and his eyes haven’t left my face. I feel as if he thinks I’ll run away, which is exactly what I feel like doing right now.

“Are you mad at me?” he questions.

“No.”

“I can always tell when you lie, Audrey, so don’t.”

“How about you don’t do that again? You’ve made it perfectly clear how you feel about me, so don’t stop me from being with someone else.” I continue walking toward Lane’s SUV and click ‘unlock’ on the key fob when I reach it.

He turns me around and backs me up against the door. “And tell me, how do I feel about you?”

“I think you’re attracted to me sexually,” I admit. He nods his head and I continue, “But you finally got that urge out of your system over winter break. In regards to everything that happened in high school, I don’t care what you think.”

His stare becomes hard and cold when he hears my words. “What the hell?” he practically yells.

I quickly shrink away from him, ducking my head and averting my eyes, but I can’t move too far because he has me blocked in. My conditioned response is the only one I’ve ever known. In my experience, the actions that come after words like that are not pleasant. In fact, they are the furthest thing from pleasant…they are painful. As in black eyes, broken ribs, and bruised arms painful.

A minute passes and no blows are thrown. With my head down, I look back in front of me and see Jace’s shoes. Jace. It’s Jace. What the hell am I thinking? Jace is not my father and he would never hurt me, not physically anyway. I silently berate myself. Knock it off, Audrey; you’re not that girl anymore. Looking up at him again, I cringe at the fear in his eyes.



JACE -

What the hell just happened? First, she pisses me off by saying that I got an urge out of my system when we were together, and then she recoils away from me as if I would strike her. All of a sudden, she’s the girl I found on the sidewalk again. ‘Approach with Caution’ is back on her chest. Did she really just think I would hurt her? The sight of her withdrawing that way makes me physically nauseous. Why would she react like that around me?